Saved
by Higgles123
Summary: Just a little Arthur something because who doesn't love this angel!


Arthur walked through the night like a man on a mission. His mind was elsewhere as his feet led him along the tired streets of Small Heath where debauchery and poverty went hand in hand. As always, after dealings of the bloody kind, Arthur was tightly wound and in need of a release that would ease him both physically and mentally. This was how he came to find himself stood outside of Madam Helena's whorehouse with another man's blood still drying upon his hands.

The run down building not too far from the BSA factory reeked of sin and all manner of unspeakable things that no amount of exotic incense in ornate holders throughout it could hide. The odour permeated from every surface along with the muffled sounds of sex and drug taking. Madam Helena had tried to decorate the place like one of those upmarket brothels in Paris or London, but beneath the sensually coloured organza curtains and low level mood lighting, the place was as dingy and downtrodden as the people who frequented it.

"Arthur," Helena smiled warmly, her once attractive face plastered in copious amounts of make up in a desperate bid to hide the haggard and worn features that had aged her long before her time. Although she rarely serviced clients herself these days, the years of late, drug fuelled nights were etched upon her in the form of wrinkles, telling the story of her hardened life. "It's always a pleasure to see you."

"And you," Arthur smiled politely. Truthfully, he was fond of Madam Helena. She had no airs and graces about her, and she never made him feel uncomfortable in his reasoning for visiting her house. He knew he could have his pick of women, but for some reason he preferred to pay for it. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't have to feel guilty about getting his end away and then fucking off. They knew why he was there and they didn't expect anything other than their payment, and perhaps an orgasm if they were lucky.

"So what can we do you for tonight?" Helena asked. "Your usual?"

"No, not tonight," Arthur shook his head, pulling his peaked cap off of his head and bunched it up in his hands.

"Sheena will be disappointed," she pouted, her eyes though full of mischief.

"I'm sure she'll survive," Arthur said dryly, thinking of the buxom blonde who always gave him a good time. But she was vivacious and wild; two things that he didn't need or want in that moment.

"So if not the lovely Sheena, who will you have tonight? Sophie? Andrea? Louise? All three?"

Arthur shook his head. He didn't know why but tonight he felt like he needed a change. Someone new. Someone he hadn't used before.

"I want someone different," he answered.

"That can be arranged," Helena nodded. "Do you have any preferences? Blonde? Brunette? Thin? Tall?"

"I don't care," Arthur murmured. "Just as long as they're nice."

"All my girls are nice, Arthur," Helena's grey eyes twinkled impishly.

"I want someone soft," he explained. "With a soft voice and a gentle way about them."

Helena gave no outward reaction to the fact that she found Arthur's request out of character. Besides it wasn't her business to ask questions or think about why.

"I know the perfect girl," she smiled. "Why don't you go and settle yourself in the end bedroom; I know you like that one. I'll bring her to you. You can get yourself cleaned up in there if you wish as well."

Arthur looked down at himself and grinned.

"And Helena?" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of notes. "This should be enough for me to have them all night, right?"

Helena just winked and turned to sashay away from him.

….

Anna looked at her face in the mirror and felt like it was a stranger staring back at her. Her long chestnut hair had been cut into a stylish bob and had been set into water waves that barely moved with her head such was the amount of lacquer in them. Her face was coated in make up, giving her face a translucent glow that was the base for dark kohl lined eyes and deep red lips.

She had walked in here only hours before in search of a job to feed her brothers and sisters now that their father lay on his death bed, soon to follow the wife he had grieved the loss of for four years. She had entered this house of sin and ungodliness a girl and would be leaving a woman. And with that knowledge, she mourned the loss of the innocence she had so dutifully saved for a husband she would now most likely never have.

The door opened and she pulled the thin robe around her scantily clad body nervously.

"It's a bit late for coyness now," Madam Helena smirked. "It's time for you to prove you worth."

Anna swallowed and forced herself to stand on shaky legs. The other girls in the room eyed her with varied expressions ranging from amusement at her obvious discomfort and pity. All of them had been in her place.

Following Madam Helena down the darkened corridor, each step of her outrageously high heeled shoes sounded louder than the last. Each clip clop mimicking the thudding of her heart. The sound of her footsteps echoed as though calling out to the heavens to alert those higher beings that this child was about to fall from grace and into the claws of depravity.

"This client is one of our most valued," Madam Helena turned to her as they came to a stop at the end room. "You'll not embarrass me; do you understand? You do what he asks without question."

Anna looked at the floor and her shoulder drooped with self-pity as she nodded. A single tear fell to the floor and she sniffed.

"No," Madam Helena grabbed her face forced her eyes to look into her own. "I won't have any of that. No one's made you do this; you came to me. _You _asked _me_ for work and you knew what that entailed when you stepped over this threshold, no?"

Anna nodded and blinked away the other tears that were threatening to spill from her amber eyes. Madam Helena let out a sigh and put an arm around the young girl. Once upon a time she had been just like her; young and full of dreams that life quickly squashed as though both she and they were nothing more than an ant under a shoe. She had sold herself for money and with it had sold her soul to a devil of a man who treated his working girls like animals; forcing them to fuck man after man all night long for as much money as he could get his grubby hands upon.

Once you were a whore you were always a whore. No matter how you dressed or behaved, that life and its claws could never leave you be. Therefore, Helena had decided that if she couldn't free herself from those shackles then she would forge ones of her own. She had worked in some of the best whorehouses Europe had to offer. Sex was an art in a way. To understand how to make a man become putty in your hands was to possess a power that many could only wish for. Which was why she had whored hard and saved up enough money to open a place of her own. A place where her women would be treated with respect. They wouldn't be pulled off of the street and sweet talked with honeyed words and drugs like so many young girls, forced into selling themselves so they could get a fix of the stuff that had lured them there in the first place.

Madam Helena only employed girls who came to her willing. And they were free to leave at any time. There were no contracts; only the condition that she take half of their payment. In return, the girls were offered a safe place to work and sleep if they wished. They were allowed to go with no more than five men in a night, and they were to always use protection. That was always made clear to the men that visited the establishment. Helena's girls were clean and would stay that way, and if a man didn't like it then he could find himself a lesser establishment and could be rewarded with the clap along with his costly release.

"I'm not trying to be harsh," she murmured in Anna's ear. "But you understand I have a business to run? And when men come here, they want us to pretend that we want them. If you cry, it hardly says that, does it?"

"I'm sorry," Anna mumbled, chewing her lip.

"You can go if you want to," Helena gave her a final chance. "I won't force you to do this if you really don't want to, but I will tell you that once you go through this door, there's no going back."

Anna nodded. She understood, and despite every fibre of her being telling her tear off the ridiculous shoes and run far away from this place, she couldn't. Her brother and sister needed to eat. Her father needed medicine to make his ending painless. There was no other way. This was it.

With something akin to pride tinged with the same sadness she always felt watching the young ones go for the first time, Helena smiled reassuringly when Anna took hold of the door knob and twisted it.

….

Arthur was sat on the arm chair in the corner of the room, his long legs crossed at the ankles and glass of whisky in his hand. The second the girl walked in, he felt like he was seeing something that wasn't meant for the likes of a heathen like him.

She was beautiful. There was something beneath the sultry make up and coiffed hair that was pure and angelic. It was her eyes he realised. He didn't know why but it was as though they could see right through to his soul.

He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry and his palms sweaty. He found himself wanting to drop down to his knees before her and cry. He wanted to beg her to save his damned soul and cleanse him of his sins.

"I'm Anna," she smiled nervously, and he noticed the way those delicate hands either side of her body trembled ever so slightly.

No doubt she was scared of him. They all were scared of him. Arthur Shelby; depraved, crazed, unhinged, killer. Those were just a few of the words thrown around to describe him, and while they were all true, it bothered Arthur that those things were all people thought of him. But it was for the best. After all, he had a reputation to uphold and if people really knew the inner sensitivity and turmoil that plagued him constantly, he wouldn't have the ability to bring grown men to their knees with a mere look, would he?

"Nice to meet you Anna," he smiled back. "Drink?"

"Uh yes," she nodded, stepping forward. The tie of her robe had come undone and she managed to trip over it, almost falling face first against the edge of the large double bed.

"Whoa," Arthur caught her quickly with a grin, his hands surprisingly gentle as they grabbed her arms to steady her.

She looked up…and up…and up. Even with her heels on she only reached his chest and she suddenly felt even more vulnerable than before. This close she realised that the man who was perhaps ten or so years older than her had a boyish charm about him. He pushed his slicked, dark hair back from his face to reveal creases at the corners of his eyes that spoke of laughter.

"What's your name?" she asked quietly.

"Arthur," he murmured, taking in her pert button nose and her full lips. She was exquisite. Her skin was like porcelain and beneath her make-up he could see a light dusting of freckles.

"Do you want to sit down, Arthur?" she suggested.

Arthur wanted to close his eyes every time she opened her mouth to speak. Her voice was soft and sweet, like honey dripping from a warm bread roll. He sat on the bed and she followed suit, flinching slightly when he shuffled a little closer to her.

Anna felt so out of her depth. In truth, she had no idea what she was supposed to do. The other girls had told her that the men always made it clear what they wanted and how they wanted it so she should just go along with it, but the gentle giant beside her just sat unmoving.

"May I have some now?" she pointed to his tumbler.

"Course you can."

The whisky burnt as it travelled down her throat and she couldn't stop the cough that escaped her as she choked on the potent alcohol.

"Not a fan?" Arthur's eyes twinkled with mirth as he patted her back.

"Sorry," she grimaced, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "I've never tried it before and I'm not certain I'm in a hurry to try it again."

"It's for everyone," Arthur smirked, downing the last of the amber liquid with a satisfied sigh. He placed the tumbler on the floor and began unbuttoning his suit jacket.

Anna realised that the moment had come and she chewed her lip anxiously as she let the robe fall from her shoulders, leaving her clad in only her underwear. Well, it wasn't even her underwear. The black silk brassiere and lace knickers were given to her by one of the other girls and Anna had felt dirty even looking at them, let alone wearing them.

Arthur's throat was dry at the sight of her skin; her skin even paler against the dark, barely there undergarments she wore. Leaning forward, he kissed her, forcing his tongue into her mouth, not noticing the way her fists were clenched at her sides and her body had stiffened uncomfortably. It was only when he felt a splosh of something wet on his cheek, did he pull back and realise that she was trying her best not to cry.

Arthur furrowed his brow in concern, stepping back away from her. Arthur Shelby may have been a savage beast when it called for it, but there was one thing that bothered him above all other things; a crying woman. Perhaps it stemmed back from all the years of watching his mother be brought to tears by his father over and over again, but the sight of a woman crying physically hurt Arthur more than a punch to the face or a kick to the groin ever could.

"Have I hurt you?" Arthur croaked.

"No," Anna shook her head hurriedly and sniffed. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…Just give me a minute… Oh darn it."

Arthur's face broke into a smile so wide at her almost polite exclamation that it was a surprise his face didn't break in two. Even in her upset or anger she was so sweet and endearing. She was an enigma to Arthur, and he was certain she didn't belong in a place such as this where a whore could curse as well as any sailor.

"Anna," he said her name so softly that she was taken aback by the gentleness there. "Are you…? Have you done this before?"

"Is it that obvious?" she grimaced, before dropping her head into her hands exasperatedly. A few seconds later, after taking a deep breath, she lifted her head and met his eyes with embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I'll go and ask Madam Helena to bring you someone else."

"Wait," Arthur grabbed her wrist as she stood up to leave. "I didn't say that, did I?"

"Well no," she admitted with a shrug. "But you've paid for, well, you know, and I don't think I'm doing a very good job of it, am I?"

"Sit down," Arthur commanded gently and she obeyed warily. "You can relax; I'm not gonna pounce on you, love."

"Sorry."

"Stop apologising, alright?" he reassured her with a smile. "Listen, it's true I came here for sex. It's hardly a surprise given where we are. But I requested someone like you because I didn't want a quick fuck and nothing else. I wanted someone to talk with as well; to just be with."

"Oh," Anna looked at the floor.

"So how about we do that?

"What?"

"Just talk," he explained. "And as for the sex… if you don't wanna do that then we won't. I promise."

"No," she put a hand on his arm. "We will. What I mean is that, we have to. I need this job."

"And you'll still be paid, don't you worry," Arthur promised. "But right now I want to just talk and if I'm the one paying, then I get what I want, don't I?"

"I suppose," she nodded with a confused frown. This night wasn't turning out at all how she expected.

"Right, well let's get comfy, shall we?" Arthur lay back on the bed and rested one hand behind his head. He patted the space beside him with a friendly smile and Anna lay down there hesitantly.

Arthur could feel the nerves radiating from her stiff body. She lay awkwardly, her body tense as she tried her hardest not to let any part of her brush against him. He had so many questions he wanted to ask her; namely why she was here selling herself when she clearly wanted to be anywhere else. But he found himself unable to form a coherent sentence as she lay so close to him. The scent of her perfume wafted up his nose and he shifted around trying to get comfortable as his cock decided it wanted to spring to life, leaving Arthur almost cringing. He had promised her that all they were going to do was talk and he wasn't about to break that promise.

"Did you know that the Chinese view the colour red as lucky?" he said suddenly, looking at the deep red drapes that hung over the window, obscuring the darkened sky.

"Hmm?" Anna frowned at him, curious as to his train of thought.

"Yeah," Arthur nodded. "Nothing lucky about it if you ask me. At least I don't think so anyway. I see red and you know what I think of? Blood? I've seen too much blood. Every day for as long as I can remember. If it wasn't my old man beating the shit out of my mum or me, it was the young boys I fought with in the war screaming for their mums as they bled out on foreign fields.

And you would think that after all of that, I would never want to see another person bleed again, wouldn't you? But instead, I go out of my fucking way to make it happen. I make men bleed because I can and sometimes because I want to. Sometimes they haven't even done anything, but I'm Arthur fucking Shelby and if I want to then I will."

Anna held her breath as he revealed his identity, and she wondered how she hadn't put two and two together already. The name, the suit, the peaked cap on the floor.

"See," he laughed darkly. "You hear my name and now you know who I am. What I am. A fucking animal. And I am. I really am. Do you know what I did tonight? Right before I came here? I went after a man who owed us some money and he didn't have it. He promised he'd have it next week and I reminded him he'd said that the week before. So I punched him to the ground and I rained blow after blow, even once he was unconscious. I kept going, and I would have kept going until he was dead, but do you know what stopped me? His kid. She couldn't have been any more than two or three. She walked into the room, calling for him and she looked at me with such fear in her eyes that I stumbled out of there feeling more disgusted than I ever had in my life."

Anna rolled on her side to face him as he closed his eyes. The pain on his face was indescribable and tears dribbled out of his eyes and down his cheeks. The anguish inside him was radiating from him and despite his horrific admission, Anna found herself wanting to comfort him. It was hard not to want to. Only a cold hearted human could see that agony consuming someone and not want to help them.

"I'm a bad person," he whispered, taking a shaky breath.

"I don't think you are," she murmured, touching his shoulder.

He opened his eyes and turned his head slightly to look at her. "You can say that after what I've just told you?"

"Yes," she spoke softly. "If you were truly a bad man you wouldn't be sat here beating yourself up over the things you've done, would you?"

"Did you hear me?" Arthur asked her incredulously. "I just told you that I almost beat a man to fucking death."

"I know. Don't ask me to explain it to you because I can't, but there is a softness inside of you that needs nurturing and loving. But first you have to learn to nurture and love it yourself," she sat up and took his face in her hands, desperate for him to understand. "We all do things we're not proud of to survive, and that's what you're doing. You're surviving in the only way you know how. I'm not condoning what you do or saying I even understand, because I don't. I mean no offense when I say that I disagree with the lifestyle you and your family live, but it's your life to live not mine. Perhaps once I might have judged you, but that was before I wound up here, ready to sell the only thing precious to me and put aside my morals because it's the only way to survive. It's the only way for my family to survive. So perhaps we're not so different you and I."

Arthur looked into those amber orbs and saw a pain that mirrored his own. He didn't need to know her story, he realised, because he already knew that they understood one another. While she wasn't taking lives in cold blood for her family, she was sacrificing her own for them.

Leaning forward, without even thinking or being able to stop himself, he pressed his lips against hers and kissed her. She kissed him back for a moment before pulling away, her chest heaving and her eyes wide.

"I'm sorry," he grumbled. "I shouldn't have done that. I made you a promise and I've already fucking broken it."

Anna said nothing, but then suddenly she leaned forwards and kissed him back; a quick peck on the lips before she eyed him with a curious expression.

"I think I should like it to be you," she whispered as her hands reached around her back to untie her brassiere. "Better you first than someone else."

A lump appeared in Arthur's throat as she bared herself to him and he felt as though God had truly sent him an angel to absolve him of his sins. Perhaps if he lay with something as pure as her she would heal something inside of him.

Their bodies melded together as though they were meant for one another, and perhaps for this night they were.

But as the sun came up and the two parted ways, there was a peace over both of them. Arthur would go back to killing and Anna would sell her body to feed her family. Tomorrow would bring the same pain and despair, but for those few hours together, the world had seemed that little bit brighter.

….

Anna walked home listening to the morning call of the birds and every so often her hand would go into her pocket to reassure herself that the money Madam Helena had given her was still there. Arthur had paid a generous sum to ensure he had her all night and as such she had enough to pay off the doctor for the week and feed the family.

The thought of returning at the going down of the sun and doing it all over again made her feel sick to her stomach because who knew what sort of men she would face. None would be the kind, gentle giant she had been with last night.

Unlocking the front door as quietly as she could, she listened for any sounds coming from the house, but mercifully it seemed that everyone was still sleeping as they should be at this early hour. As she was closing the door, she noticed something sticking out of the letterbox.

She frowned and pulled out the large brown envelope that was full to the brim with something. Sitting down at the kitchen table, she yawned and tipped open the contents carefully. Her fatigue soon turned into something else as more money than she had even seen in her life fell onto the table.

Unravelling the letter that came with it, she found herself in tears before she had even finished reading it.

_Anna,_

_I am unable to make amends for all of the bad things I have done in my life, but perhaps this can be some sort of start._

_Take this money and use it to look after yourself and your family. I can't give you back what you gave me last night, but know that it was taken with reverence and care. If all I can do is to stop you from being tainted by the same ugliness that haunts my life then I don't care if I never do a good thing ever again after this._

_Last night you gave me not only your innocence, but you gave me a part of myself back. You've saved me and my damned soul. I don't expect you to understand because in truth it makes no sense, but from the bottom of my heart I thank you._

_You make sure to take care of yourself, and you have in me always a friend should you need one._

_Arthur._

Anna was in pieces, fingering the money before her as though it was a fatigue induced mirage that would disappear at any second.

But it wasn't. It was real.

She might have saved Arthur but he'd saved her too. More than he could ever know.


End file.
